


Do What I Have to Do

by drosophilase



Category: Glee RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-25
Updated: 2013-05-25
Packaged: 2017-12-12 23:34:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,019
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/817350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drosophilase/pseuds/drosophilase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neil and David meet Darren for the first time.  Crisscolfer from another POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do What I Have to Do

“Neil! Hi honey!”

He opens his arms eagerly to squeeze tight around Chris’s body, which seems to be curiously disappearing a little more every time he sees him.

“You’re getting so skinny!” Neil says disapprovingly, pinching teasingly at his stomach.  

Chris laughs and bats his hand away.  ”Finally getting rid of all that baby fat, you mean.  It’s about damn time.  Two decades of carrying it around is way too long.”

Neil laughs good-naturedly even though he can’t help but be a little worried.

“What, no hug for me?” David balks from his side, stepping forward with arms already spread.  

Neil can’t help but grin at how far Chris has come.  He was just so baby-faced the first time they got to meet him.  A little timid, but at the same time so sure of himself at his young age, something Neil never had and couldn’t help but be a bit envious of.  Chris was exceptional, still is, in that way that only some people can be, only the people who don’t know they’re something special.

 

Neil can see it now, how he shrugs off David’s compliment and smiles self-deprecatingly, rolls his eyes fondly like he’s heard it all before and he’s never believed it, not once.

“Oh! Wait a second,” Chris says, holding up a finger before he steps over to a group of people at the right, saying something in the ear of a man standing there and gripping his bicep, guiding him back.

The tease is right on the tip of Neil’s tongue,  _hooked you one, did you Chris?_ when he sees who it is.  David gasps a little beside him.

He’s a lot smaller than he looks on television, but then Neil knows all the camera tricks too well.  His hair is curlier than he would have thought, his eyes at least three times as bright.  He’s not polished like Blaine either, bouncing on his toes and glancing around every few seconds with wide eyes, like if he blinks it’ll all disappear.

“Neil, David, this is Darren Criss.”

“Hi Darren!  I’m—” Neil gets out before Darren cuts him off, grabbing his outstretched hand in both of his.

“Oh god, of course I know who you are.  Huge fan, huge fan.”  Neil’s a little taken aback by how down-to-earth the comment is, like he’s just one in the crowd outside scrambling for an autograph and nothing more.

“David too!  God, you guys are even better-looking in person, just a gorgeous couple, wow.”

Neil exchanges a look with David, trying not to be obviously surprised.  They’d heard more than a few things about Darren just through the grapevine, but none of them were quite  _this_.

Neil lets David and Chris pick up chatting about the latest news on some celebrity, watching Darren.  Well, watching Darren watch Chris would be more accurate.  He does look at David when he’s speaking, but his eyes always flick right back to Chris, lips automatically curving up when Chris’s do, bodies bending and heads tilting like mirrors, like instinct.

It’s something Neil hasn’t seen in a lot of long-married couples, much less in two people who have worked less than one season of television filming together.  It’s… uncanny.

“David dear, why don’t you and Darren go get us some drinks?  Maybe we can talk Chris into a glass of champagne.”

David raises an eyebrow, and Neil can’t tell if he’s been too obvious or if David just knows his angle.  He goes, though, Darren following timidly after until David brings up the Broadway show they flew out to catch the weekend before and he perks up immediately.

Chris is smiling softly after Darren’s retreating back and it almost brings Neil up short again with how honest it looks, and how unaware of it he seems to be.

“So,” Neil prompts, unsure if he should joke or not. He decides on gentle teasing.  ”You and Darren…?”

Chris looks at him like he’s absolutely  _lost it_ , bursting out in bright laughter.  Slightly hysterical, Neil thinks.  ”Me and— really?  No, Neil, oh my god.  We’re just— I mean we’re friends… best friends,” he concedes quietly before squaring his shoulders, forging on, “we’re coworkers, we’re  _on-screen love interests_  for god’s sake.  No way.  I mean, how cliche would that be?”

Neil raises his eyebrows, waiting.

“Plus he’s emotionally unavailable and woefully heterosexual,” Chris admits finally, deflating a little.  Neil rubs his shoulder soothingly, biting his tongue.

So then both of them are ignorant, willingly or otherwise.  He remembers those days all too well.

Darren and David come back and Chris straightens up quickly, bright smile right back as soon as he reaches for the outstretched champagne class resting in Darren’s fingers, only giving a rueful sort of grin before taking a sip.

This time Neil watches Chris watch Darren, how he’s better at keeping his eyes to himself but not a bit better at resisting the instinct to adjust himself around Darren like he’s just an extension, another limb.  Neil wedges his hand in-between David’s elbow and side, humming when David gives him a fleeting, pleased look.

And in a split-second flash Neil sees the longing, too, just that little flicker of gaze and slump of eyebrows, sad and hungry at the same time.  He can see it on both of them.

Eventually Darren and Chris get tugged away by someone their own age, as Neil knew they would.  He drains his vodka tonic and squeezes David’s elbow.

“Get his number tonight, if you can, sweetheart,” he asks softly, trying to survey the room but always finding himself looking back on the oblivious pair to the left, laughing and talking and always looking for the reaction of the other.

“Darren?” David says, sounding a little surprised.  "Sure, honey.  Why?”

“I just see a lot of myself in him, I think,” Neil says lightly, not betraying the real weight of the words.  "You too.”

“Oh.”  He understands, he always does.  ”Yes.  You might be right.”

“I always am,” Neil laughs, kissing David on the tip of his nose before another friend walks up to claim their attention.


End file.
